A container terminal in New York Harbor is preparing to accept reservations for trucks to pick up or drop off cargo, in an effort to reduce congestion in the East Coast’s busiest port complex.

Starting on Jan. 15, truck drivers headed for the Bayonne, N.J., terminal operated by GCT USA LP will be required to make an appointment if they want to enter the terminal in the first couple hours after it opens each morning.

The goal is to eliminate the long lines of trucks that often queue up outside the terminal’s gates, clogging traffic in surrounding neighborhoods, slowing operations and raising costs for drivers.

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Truck congestion plagues many busy ports nationwide, as cargo volumes rise and bigger ships make calls at U.S. ports. The biggest vessels require thousands of truck trips to carry containers to rail yards and warehouses.

GCT Bayonne is the first terminal at the Port of New York and New Jersey to require appointments. A handful of North American ports have adopted similar reservation systems, including cargo-handling facilities at Southern California’s two ports—the nation’s biggest—the Port of Oakland and Vancouver in British Columbia. The Port of Virginia has tested the use of appointments.

The appointment system is one of several measures GCT Bayonne has undertaken to streamline operations, including using remote-controlled cranes and other automation. The terminal handles the biggest ships that come to New York Harbor, though larger ships are expected to call on nearby terminals later this year, when the Port Authority is expected to complete the next phase in its project to raise the Bayonne Bridge.

Some truckers remain wary of reservation systems, saying they can experience glitches that cost time, and that they run the risk of missing appointments due to traffic and other delays outside drivers’ control. GCT Bayonne was supposed to start taking appointments in late 2015 but delayed the launch for further testing.

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“Appointment systems have been tried at other ports, and they’ve been problematic, so our members are somewhat skeptical about the chances of it being successful here in New Jersey,” Jeffrey Bader, President of the Association of Bi-State Motor Carriers, said in an email. The group’s members helped GCT test the system.

Under current operations, truck drivers line up to enter container terminals and can then spend hours more inside going through checkpoints and maneuvering to drop off empty containers or pick up new loads—what truckers call turn time.

In Bayonne, turn time fell by 38% during a recent test of the reservation system, the Port Authority said. Starting on Sunday, only trucks with reservations can enter the terminal after the gates open at 6 a.m. until 7:45 a.m., and no queuing will be allowed, the Port Authority said.